Friday, May 9, 2014

#artspiration #1: Hundertwasser

I am constantly looking for new ways to find inspiration, but I also wanted to find a way to collect my favorite artists in one place. So, the #artspiration (art/inspiration) tag was born. I will try to post this at least once a week (yeah, I have too many artists that I love and want to share with you.).

The first one is an Austrian artist, born in Vienna and later living in New Zealand: Friedensreich Hundertwasser - he is one of the best-known contemporary artists in Austria by the end of the 20th century.

His style: His artistic vision is expressed in pictorial art, philosophy, design of facades, architecture and even clothing (among other areas).

Colors&forms: he usually uses bright colors, organic forms and a strong individualism resulting in a rejection of straight lines

When did I first notice his work: I was about 6 or 7 years old when my family and I went to a spa called "Rogner Bad Blumau" in Styria, Austria. Everything there was designed by Hundertwasser. We stayed in the hotel and I was obsessed with the floor in the hallways: instead of being a "normal, straight" floor, it got woobly and wavy on the sides. I loved running on these "imperfect" hilly sides and I loved the unique look of it. Plus, the bath architecture was so colorful, it felt like it was designed for children and children only ;) It made you immediately happy when you entered a new room.

You can't imagine the floor or the spa? Well, here are some pictures:

source: cms.blumau.com

cms.blumau.com

cms.blumau.com

austria.info

Quotes & other: I adore his architecture. One thing he said has really stuck with me: "A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there, who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door." He rejected rationalism, the straight line and functional architecture (instead, he loved the form of spirals).

Other favorites of mine:

kunsthauswien.com

Similarities: His use of organic forms and tiles is comparable to the work of Antoni Gaudí.
He was also inspired by the the Austrian painters Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt.

Personal: According to his friends he lived extremly modest and had not even spent money on a haircut (see: an article about his manager).

Why do I like his art: It is out of the norm and "out of the box", so to speak. I love his mention of a straight line being a "devil's tool" and his soft, round lines in architecture. Plus, his use of colors and geometric forms make me comfortable and alert at the same time. His way of combining architecture and nature in the Bad Blumau is amazing & I can only dream of a house with trees and grass on it like this:

My question for you: Have you ever seen or heard of Hundertwasserbefore? What do you like/not like about his art?